Minister Says Company Investing In Production

Ukrainian and other media outlets have reported that Bell Helicopters announced plans to establish a helicopter production facility in the country, and that Oleksii Sobolev, the country’s Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture posted a statement to that effect on Facebook after he met with representatives of Bell to discuss the plan.

Sobolev wrote, ““In my first week as Minister, I had several important meetings, where we discussed key tasks that we can continue working on for the benefit of all parties.”

The minister said that Bell is already planning to launch production in the country, and mentioned the AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom as possible aircraft to be manufactured.

“The stage of technical consultations and assessments lies ahead, but this ambitious project could become a new phase in the development of defense industry partnership between Ukraine and the United States,” Sobolev noted.

The idea of producing aircraft in Ukraine is not a new one for Bell, but previous discussions of the project did not lead to an actual facility. Now, however, with Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, Bell has ramped up the promotion of its aircraft for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Bell has previously officially proposed combat mods for its Bell 407M helicopter for the country.

Although Bell’s plans are not yet fully defined, technical consultations and evaluations are in the early stages, and the project could signal a significant new stage in defense-industrial partnership between the two countries. Some also mentioned that Bell may focus on the military sector initially, with an eye toward future expansion into the civilian market

FMI:  www.bellflight.com/